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Union Thugs Spit On Speakers, Get Arrested At Right To Work Event In Washington

On Thursday, September 5, an evening seminar was held in Vancouver, Washington to discuss Right to Work legislation and how it could benefit the states of Washington and Oregon. The seminar, co-hosted by the Freedom Foundation of Olympia and the Cascade Policy Institute, featured Vincent Vernuccio of the Mackinac Center and Harry Beck of the Supreme Court Case, Beck v CWA. Participants paid $10 each to hear how Michigan beat the odds to enact Right to Work legislation and how it's changed the state.

Instead of allowing a discussion to take place, several union members crashed the party, screaming at participants, getting arrested and even spitting on the keynote speaker.

One eyewitness sent me an account of what happened, along with video. This eyewitness has requested anonymity, fearing reprisals from the unions.

Freedom “Ruins Everything,” Unions Protest

Three words strike fear into the hearts of union leaders: “Right to Work.” At the mere mention of the phrase, unions in lockstep intimidate, harass, and bully those who dare to question what’s best for American workers.

Little did I know I’d be experiencing this first hand.

As a young conservative striving to find a foothold in a challenging economy, I was intrigued by the Northwest Employee Freedom event about right-to-work legislation. Held jointly by Oregon’s Cascade Policy Institute and Washington’s Freedom Foundation, labor experts including “top union watchdog” Vincent Vernuccio from the Mackinac Center would be coming to Vancouver to discuss labor reform and strategies for increasing employee freedom across the country.

I was looking forward to an intellectual discussion from these leading minds, but others insisted on being heard that evening.

From the moment my companions and I pulled up to the Clark College parking lot, already having fought our way through a drenching Northwest downpour, we realized another battle lay ahead. A cluster of people waving signs obstructed the driveway. Standing in the crosswalk to slow down cars, one man snapped pictures of every license plate as we drove in. Intimidation: Chapter One.

Chapter Two awaited us at the building entrance. Another crowd milled around the doors bearing more signs, daring any one of us to call them out. “He threatened to punch me if I didn’t get out of the crosswalk,” complained one would-be victim about another event attendee. “Let’s call the police on him.” One man held a sign stating, “Right 2 Work short changes your wallet” and admonished us, “Shame on you!” as we walked by without comment. “Right to work ruins society,” intoned another protester. “Ruins everything.”

The only thing being ruined at that moment was the educational forum we were yet to reach. Protesters in the hallway hovered as we presented our tickets, trying to join their compatriots who had already shouldered their way inside.

We entered the room to find sheer chaos - men with signs and bullhorns flanked the perimeter, surrounding participants who sat at tables watching the spectacle in disbelief. Vincent Vernuccio, the featured speaker, was countering the amplified voices with his brash New York attitude, giving no quarter as the men tried to hold the event hostage. “It’s our meeting now!” one bullhorned protester proudly proclaimed, as if sheer volume somehow translated to being king of the sandhill.

The situation continued out of hand until police arrived to a round of applause, escorting out the union trespassers and arresting one man who tried to insist that he was being “profiled.”

“Back to our regularly scheduled programming,” Vincent, the speaker, quipped. “If you’re not getting flak, it means you’re not over the target!”

The event itself proved incredibly illuminating. Harry Beck, famous for union workers’ “Beck rights” to pay only those dues not used for political purposes, cited Governor Kitzhaber’s Labor Day speech as a classic example of the hypocrisy inherent in the anti-right-to-work movement.

“Kitzhaber gives women the right to an abortion, or not. He gives seniors the right to die with dignity, or not. But he won’t give public sector workers, who are specially trained, who carry guns, who protect us, who we trust to teach our children - he won’t give them the right to choose whether to be in a union, or not. Why? Because they’re not smart enough?”

“Right-to-work isn’t about union dues. It’s about choice. It’s about freedom,” he emphasized.

Freedom to make unions have to earn their dues. Freedom to hold them accountable to the members that they claim to represent. Freedom from fear of the retaliation and intimidation tactics on which they rely.

Hey hey, ho ho, freedom helps workers, don’t ya know?

Here is the first video, showing protesters at the entrance to the event:

After yelling, harassing, and shoving event attendees and organizers, protesters entered the venue and began shouting and using bullhorns to disrupt the event. The keynote speaker, Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s labor expert Vincent Vernuccio, was also spat on by a protester. The Vancouver Police Department was called and escorted protesters out of the event center. The two who refused to leave were arrested for trespassing.

This peaceful gathering of Washingtonians and Oregonians was meant to educate them on the story of how Michigan secured the freedom for all of its public and private sector employees to choose whether or not they want to be represented by a union without financial consequences.

“This kind of behavior is most saddening because it shows a real lack of understanding of what Cascade Policy Institute wants for Oregon,” said Cascade founder Steve Buckstein.

“We do not seek to end unions or union representation. We simply want all Oregonians to have the right to choose whether or not union membership and representation is something they desire for themselves,” he said. “All Oregonians deserve that right, even those who reject our efforts.”

“At the end of the day, this is a fight for freedom and justice. No amount of harassment or intimidation will change that fact,” he ended.

If I'm not mistaken, the ILWU just left the SEIU, all 40,000 of them.. they didn't like the way the SEIU was running things.
No surprise to see them at an event, looking to disrupt it.
Keep up the good fight!

I am a blue collar guy. I work on cell towers, building them, installing lines and antennas and pretty much doing anything needed on em.
We are, for the most part, NOT unions. they tried to put us 'under their wing' a few years back and in some states like NY, they still do. They attempt to say we're part of the Iron workers unions and come under their jurisdiction.
I have no truck with unions. I feel that I don't need to pay some schmo in a suit to tell my boss out much I need to be paid. My WORK does that. I'm not giving part of my paycheck that that dick so he can run his mouth and not work for himself.
The last run in I had with a union ended in the union rep leaving our tower site in a hurry to the admonishment that if he came back looking for trouble, we'd give him more than he wanted and then some. He didn't come back thankfully, and we completed our work in a timely manner and got out of there.
It's sad when, in order to work and provide for my family, I have to out-thug a thug.

Thanks Elliott. The irony is that we're not even trying to get full right-to-work legislation passed in Oregon. The current ballot initiative only covers public sector union members being allowed to opt out of compulsory dues.

Many public and private sector labor unions require mandatory dues from their members or a fee from non-members within the same workplace. This policy harkens back to a time when union membership was compulsory. Under the Wagner Act of 1935, employers were forced to collectively bargain with employees under its purview whether they were unionized or not. This act spurred union membership by 55%, but this alone was not enough.

Five years ago, a labor dispute led to a 19-day walkout on Broadway leaving more than two dozen shows dark. In turn, this led to producers and the city of New York losing millions of dollars in potential revenue. That was in 2007, but another potential strike is looming if a deal is not made by the end of the year. This time, it is the 250 cleaners, porters, elevator operators, and bathroom attendants in Broadway’s theaters who are threatening to strike.

My family has deep roots in Michigan, from the frigid locks of Sault Ste. Marie to the college-town ambience of Kalamazoo. But ultimately, my parents left Michigan and eventually the Midwest in search of jobs. Jobs found in the “right-to-work” state of Arizona.

Last week, after Right-to-Work passed in Michigan, many were celebrating workplace freedom in the historic union stronghold. Some, however, were less than thrilled. Take, for example, Michael Moore, hypocrite extraordinaire who took to Twitter to express his displeasure.

Police in Michigan turned aside oganized labor violence on Thursday as opponents of workplace freedom tried in vain to intimidate lawmakers in their workplace. The Michigan Senate passed Right To Work legislation, which goes to the House for a vote on Tuesday.Ironically, the agents of forced unionization claim that Right To Work (RTW) laws endanger employee safety. RTW laws, which defend the right to be secure in a job without being forced to pay union dues, do not affect employee safety. The kinds of work people do in the states that happen to have chosen workplace freedom allow unscrupulous people to offer misleading statistics.

Teachers are given the incredible responsibility of educating children. Around the world, parents entrust these men and women to spend their days educating children with the expectation that they will stick to the curriculum and leave personal beliefs at home. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

On the heels of two big wins for workplace freedom in Michigan, it looks like the state might be taking an even bigger step: becoming a right-to-work state. There are currently twenty-three right to work states, and the addition of Michigan would be a huge boon for workplace freedom.